Media files accessible over a network are increasingly being used to deliver content to mass audiences. However, serving media on the Internet can often become an expensive proposition for individuals. Authors create and post media on the Internet in the hopes that others will find it interesting, yet if too many people find their content interesting, it will lead to bandwidth limits being reached, or even worse, a large bill from their web host.
A perfect example of this can be found in the rapidly growing world of video web logs or “vlogs.” A vlog is similar to a web log (a “blog”) except that video media is the primary content of the log. Thus, the bandwidth requirements for vlogs is significantly greater than that of blogs and even audio-only media. At Vloggercon 2004, one common complaint of vloggers was that, as their audience grew, so did their bills. Some had become so popular, they were facing the difficult decision of having to shut their site down completely.